Florida District Receives First Project SAFE Grant

Alachua County Public Schools in Florida has received the first grant under the Biden administration's Project to Support America's Families and Educators (Project SAFE) program, which is designed to compensate schools that lose some portion of their funding as a result of COVID-19 policies that come into conflict with state policies.

The award, totaling $147,719, was specifically given to the School Board of Alachua County to compensate school board members whose monthly compensation was deducted from state funds for the district's mask policy, which appears to have been in conflict with a state mandate. The district allows families to opt their student out of wearing masks with the approval of a doctor or nurse practitioner. The state mandate says parents can opt their students out of wearing a mask without such medical approval.

It's unclear why Alachua has been so far the only recipient of a Project SAFE grant since the program was announced earlier this month. Alachua's grant was announced in a press release from the United States Department of Education six days after Alachua's application was filed.

Alachua County is a district troubled by racial disparities. The district has a high rate of disciplinary actions and referrals of students to police for prosecution for offenses like classroom disruptions, fighting and petty vandalism, with the vast majority of those disciplinary actions targeting black students. In a report on school-to-prison pipelines, the Florida ACLU reported that while black students make up only 34% of the district's student population, they account for 73% of student arrests, 76% of police citations, 60% of expulsions and alternative placements and 72% of out-of-school suspensions in the 2017–2018 school year. Since the return to in-person instruction this year, disciplinary actions and police referrals appear to be continuing apace, with several expulsions and criminal charges already reported for vandalism potentially related to a TikTok challenge. Also in the last several days, the district has received a number of bomb threats (motivation unknown at this point), resulting in school closures.

Further information on Project SAFE can be found on the ed.gov Project SAFE portal.

About the Author

David Nagel is the former editorial director of 1105 Media's Education Group and editor-in-chief of THE Journal, STEAM Universe, and Spaces4Learning. A 30-year publishing veteran, Nagel has led or contributed to dozens of technology, art, marketing, media, and business publications.

He can be reached at [email protected]. You can also connect with him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidrnagel/ .


Featured

  • blue AI cloud connected to circuit lines, a server stack, and a shield with a padlock icon

    Report: AI Security Controls Lag Behind Adoption of AI Cloud Services

    According to a recent report from cybersecurity firm Wiz, nearly nine out of 10 organizations are already using AI services in the cloud — but fewer than one in seven have implemented AI-specific security controls.

  • stacks of glowing digital documents with circuit patterns and data streams

    Mistral AI Intros Advanced AI-Powered OCR

    French AI startup Mistral AI has announced Mistral OCR, an advanced optical character recognition (OCR) API designed to convert printed and scanned documents into digital files with "unprecedented accuracy."

  • robot waving

    Copilot Updates Aim to Personalize AI

    Microsoft has introduced a range of updates to its Copilot platform, marking a new phase in its effort to deliver what it calls a "true AI companion" that adapts to individual users' needs, preferences and routines.

  • teenager interacts with a chatbot on a computer screen

    Character.AI Rolls Out New Parental Insights Feature Amid Safety Concerns

    Chatbot platform Character.AI has introduced a new Parental Insights feature aimed at giving parents a window into their children's activity on the platform. The feature allows users under 18 to share a weekly report of their chatbot interactions directly with a parent's e-mail address.